Intelligent Addressing receive national award

The paper originally presented by Nicholson at AGI2006 entitled "PSI Feast or famine? What Does the Future Hold?" explored the commercial applications of public sector information and challenged the government, public sector and private sector organisations to urgently review the current trading model.

Papers at AGI2006, the UK's largest integrated conference and exhibition for the professional geographic information community, were marked against three criteria: usefulness to readers and delegates, innovation and quality of the written paper. Having drawn up a shortlist the judges then awarded marks for the quality of the actual presentation.

Nicholson's paper was deemed to be "an extremely well written and well presented paper. A personal, passionate and thought provoking presentation on a very topical subject area," by Mark Linehan, Conference Judge and former Director of the AGI. The quality of papers at AGI2006 was extremely high, with a record number of âhighly commended' awards to organisations including Surrey Police, London Fire Brigade, Atkins, Oracle and BT.

"It is a great honour to receive this award," commented Nicholson following the official presentation. "As well as recognition from the geographic information industry it is further testament to the wider support that exists for innovation, enterprise and fair competition."

"PSI Feast or Famine? What Does the Future Hold?" was drafted prior to the decision by the Office of Public Sector Information to uphold a significant proportion of the complaint by Intelligent Addressing against the Ordnance Survey and was delivered as the debate continued to rage. The dispute between the two parties focuses on obtaining fair and reasonable terms for a licence to distribute an element of Ordnance Survey data, which was used by Intelligent Addressing and local government in the National Land & Property Gazetteer (NLPG), the master dataset of addresses with over 30 million records and part of a national initiative to improve the quality, and currency of addressing in England and Wales.

23rd November 2006

Notes to Editors:

The NLPG was initiated in 1999 to become the master address dataset for England and Wales and the central hub for the 376 address creating Local Authorities and their Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs). Based on unique property reference numbers (UPRNs) the underlying principle of these gazetteers is to provide a single definitive address database for all departments and systems across a local authority in order to cut costs, improve efficiency and service delivery.

The dataset enables various local authority departments - from revenue collection and environmental health, to social security, the electoral roll and education - to now offer true âjoined up' government. The benefits also go beyond service delivery. Fraud prevention, tax collection and disaster planning all benefit from the fact that each property is given a âUnique Property Reference Number' which transcends (property) numbers, names, descriptions (such as âThe Nursing Home') and postcodes. UPRNs are assigned for the full life of the plot and/or building. The project was given a significant boost in 2005 with the introduction of the Mapping Services Agreement, which committed all Local Authorities to bringing their gazetteers up to standard and to start submitting regular updates to the NLPG hub for use by national and regional organisations. Collaboration with DNA-S (Definitive National Addressing for Scotland) who use the same BS7666 processes and database schemas means that the a British addressing infrastructure is now a reality.

Intelligent Addressing is a specialist private sector consultancy (an SME) employing recognised experts in addressing. It was originally set up to help develop the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) on behalf of local government and now manages the NLPG and NSG central data hubs under the terms of the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA) with local government.

Intelligent Addressing contact:

Gayle Gander, Head of Marketing | 0207 747 3500 | E-mail: [email protected] | www.intelligent-addressing.co.uk, www.thensg.org.uk, www.nlpg.org.uk

Editorial enquiries and colour separation requests:

William Allbrook | T: 01666 826641 | F: 01666 824668

The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) The IDeA works in partnership with all councils, to enhance the performance of the best, accelerate the speed of improvement of the rest, and develop the sector as a whole. IDeA has brokered the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA) with Intelligent Addressing to develop the NLPG and NSG, through the Local Government Information House (LGIH), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Agency.

Working in partnership with the local government community developing national infrastructure projects that enable councils to deliver local services more effectively, LGIH acts as an intermediary between the public and the private sector enabling it to negotiate with private companies on behalf of local authorities in order to provide key parts of a technical infrastructure for improved service delivery.

The NLPG is a joint venture between the Information House and Intelligent Addressing Limited.

IDeA contacts:

Steve Brandwood, Programme Manager | 020 7296 6615 | Email: [email protected] | www.idea.gov.uk

Media: Paul Bailey | 020 7296 6529